Faculty Profile: Bo Covington, Mandarin Teacher

When Bo Covington applied to college in her native China, she was hoping to be an English major. During an oral exam, the proctor posed questions about how she liked particular things—maybe a type of food or a city or the weather. Her response to each question: “Yes.”

Even though she had been learning English since sixth grade, she hadn’t really been taught how to speak the language. “I don’t want my students to be like that,” says Bo, Santa Catalina’s Mandarin teacher. “I want my students to be able to communicate with native speakers. That’s the most important thing.”

With a little extra help from language tapes that her dad bought her, she went on to earn a B.A. in foreign language education from Sichuan International Studies University, and she taught English in China before moving to California. She has been at Santa Catalina since 2010.

Bo is serious about making sure her Mandarin students speak the language. “I encourage them to talk to me only in Chinese on campus, even after class,” she says. And she involves boarding students from China as much as she can. In one assignment, for example, she asks her language students to take videos of themselves conversing with Chinese students. The extra exposure to native speakers proves beneficial to language learners. In fact, it’s not uncommon for Catalina students to earn awards at a statewide Mandarin speech contest.

For Bo, who is also the international student advisor, those exchanges serve an additional purpose: to welcome Chinese students into the community. One year, an international student from China came to her, confused because an American student had told her that she drives to school (which is not something that happens in China). Bo assured her that was true. She recalls, “She said, ‘Oh, I thought I heard it wrong.’ So these conversations are a good chance for Chinese students to learn about [American] culture and also for them to just meet one new friend.”

If Bo’s first priority is to encourage her students to speak Chinese, imparting her own country’s culture is a close second. Students make moon cakes and dumplings, participate in local festivals, learn calligraphy and dances, drink tea and tie Chinese knots. She often involves international students in these activities to help keep them tethered to home. Her favorite tradition is Chinese New Year Community Dinner, which is hosted by language students along with international students. The event features songs, Chinese cuisine, and dragon and lion dances. This year, because students were unable to return to China during winter break, she invited their parents to record special new year messages, which were edited together and shared at dinner.

Bo is the kind of teacher who loves to connect with her students, and you can tell they feel the same. She still sees the students from her first year of teaching when she visits China every summer. In her office at Catalina, she has a wall of photos neatly hanging from scoops of string. Most of the photos are of her previous students participating in the cultural activities they enjoy so much. There’s one item that stands out: a flyer for a Catalina theatre production of Meet Me in St. Louis from a decade ago. On the back is an invitation to attend the show. The invitation, written in Mandarin by a first-year student, still brings a smile to Bo’s face all these years later—pure pride in a student’s demonstration of the language.

Favorite movie

To Live. You can see lots of Chinese culture— from the civil war to the Cultural Revolution. I always recommend it to my students.

Birthplace

Sanhui, Sichuan, China, a small town with three rivers and green mountains, several hours’ train ride from Chengdu

Favorite hobby

My garden is very therapeutic for me, and I’m starting to grow my first lotus flower in my greenhouse.

New hobby

I started to learn how to paint Chinese fine brush paintings before we moved to remote classes.

Favorite word

Star. It’s beautiful and it also means hope in the darkness.

Cultural differences

We don’t say hello. For my mom and her neighbors, they say, “Did you eat?” For young people, we often say, “Where are you going?”

Past jobs

English language teacher. Textbook editor. Interpreter at LanguageLine Solutions in Monterey.